Frontal Plane Kinematics And Kinetics Of Inexperienced Participants During Battle Rope Exercises

Battle rope exercises have emerged as the latest fitness trend, providing numerous benefits, such as building muscular strength and improving cardiorespiratory fitness. Although many individuals are implementing battle rope exercises as part of their full-body workout, no previous literature examined the frontal plane movement in the lower extremities when performing bilateral and unilateral battle rope. PURPOSE: This study aims to compare the frontal plane range of motion (ROM), peak angles, and moments of the hip, knee, and ankle joints between the performance of bilateral and unilateral forms of battle rope training in inexperienced participants. METHODS: Seventeen recreationally active individuals (11 males, six females, 20.3 ± 2.2 yrs) with no experience of battle rope exercises participated in this study. Each participant performed four trials of bilateral and four trials of unilateral battle rope exercises in a randomized order. Each trial lasted for 20 seconds, with a three-minute rest in between. Frontal plane range of motion, peak angles, and moments of the hip, knee, and ankle joints of the dominant leg were measured using a Qualisys motion capture system and Bertec force plates. The angles and moments were calculated during the hand’s downward motion on the dominant limb side during both the unilateral and bilateral trials. RESULTS: Hip ROM during the performance of the unilateral trials (5.2 ± 2.5°) was greater than the bilateral trials (2.6 ± 1.4°, p < 0.001). Peak hip abduction angle was greater during unilateral trials (-19.8 ± 5.7°) compared to the bilateral trials (-17.3 ± 5.2°, p = 0.001). Hip adduction moment increased during the performance of the unilateral trials (0.21 ± 0.27 Nm/kg) compared to the bilateral trials (0.14 ± 0.25 Nm/kg, p = 0.002). No significant differences in ROM, peak angles, and moments were found in the knee and ankle joints when performing the two variations of the battle rope exercise. CONCLUSION: The study concluded that hip ROM, peak angles, and moments were significantly increased when performing unilateral battle rope exercise in contrast to bilateral exercise. Since engaging in unilateral battle rope entails greater side-to-side motion in the frontal plane, the body requires the hip joints to accommodate the movements.